China ICT (Info Communications Technology) Industry, Infra, Commerce, Exports: News & Discussions

[JSCh]

Cambodian telecoms firm partners with China's Huawei to bring 4.5G service
Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-21 20:43:31|Editor: Yang Yi



PHNOM PENH, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's mobile telecommunications company Smart Axiata, in partnership with global ICT solutions provider Huawei, launched the 4.5G network in Cambodia on Monday.

Cambodian Minister of Posts and Telecommunications Tram Iv Tek said Smart Axiata was the first telecom operator that introduced 4.5G evolution technology to Cambodia.

"This latest evolution of mobile technology will enable subscribers to enjoy better and faster mobile internet," he said during the launching ceremony. "Fast access to the internet is indeed an important tool in developing a digital economy."

In Cambodia, about 45 percent of the population is still offline, the minister said, adding that the country expected that 100 percent of the urban dwellers and 80 percent of the rural dwellers would use the Internet by 2020.

Thomas Hundt, chief executive officer of Smart Axiata, said 4.5G network is capable of providing an Internet speed 8 times higher than that of 4G.

"We strive to be the most progressive telco in the country. Smart will continue to seek new and better ways to ensure our subscribers receive the best possible service," he said. "After being the first telco introducing 4G LTE in Cambodia in 2014, 4G+ in 2016, and now 4.5G, and 5G is surely not far away."

Industry experts expect the first commercial launch of full-fledged 5G to happen in 2020.

Li Xiongwei, chief executive officer of Huawei Technologies Cambodia, said Huawei was very pleased to cooperate with Smart to launch 4.5G and to bring Cambodia closer to next generation technology.

"The 4.5G will certainly bring significant network improvements from today's 4G network, while acting as a bridge for future mobile data applications when 5G is launched in the future," he said.

Cambodia has six mobile phone operators and about 30 Internet service providers.

According to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, approximately 8 million out of the country's 15 million people have now access to the Internet.

 

[JSCh]

China Telecom offers 10 times faster broadband in Shanghai in 2018
Zhu Shenshen
17:25 UTC+8, 2017-08-25

Shanghai will become the first city in the world with full coverage of one-gigabyte broadband bandwidth in 2018, more than 10 times faster compared with the current network now, China Telecom said today in Shanghai.

With greatly improved speed of broadband services, users can have services like super high-definition video services, IPTV or Internet protocol TV and other interactive services, said China Telecom, which has attracted more than 5.2 million family broadband users since kicking off the service in Shanghai 20 years ago.

The local average broadband bandwidth is about 71.7 Mbps or megabytes per second — already the fastest in the Chinese mainland. By the end of 2017, the average broadband bandwidth in Shanghai will reach 115 Mbps, 12 percent growth year-on-year. The 1-gigabyte broadband network will be 10 times faster, which will cover the whole city by 2018, said China Telecom.

Enterprises and organizations are also expected to benefit for the upgraded network, covering on the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence applications.

Smaller carriers including China Telecom and China Unicom have to develop unique advantages to compete with market leader China Mobile, analysts said.

Last week, China Unicom announced to attract 78 billion yuan (US$11.5 billion) investment from companies including Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.

 

[TaiShang]

China's IT, internet industry prospers
Xinhua, September 6, 2017

China's IT and internet industry continued to prosper in 2016 thanks to a better business environment and technological innovation, according to a report of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

Total revenues of major IT and internet companies reached 17 trillion yuan (about US$2.6 trillion), 1.55 times that of the 2012, the latest official data showed.

This represents 11.6 percent annual growth from 2012 to 2016, with the electronics manufacturing and software sectors leading growth by expanding 9.5 percent and 18.1 percent respectively.

Profit growth at major electronic IT and internet companies gathered pace in 2016 on increasing investment and lower tax rates.

Last year such firms reported total profits of 1.3 trillion yuan, nearly double that in 2012, with a 17.3 percent annual growth.

The report said that last year the electronics manufacturing sector continued to support the country's industrial growth with its value-added output expanding 10 percent year on year.

The number of IT and internet companies with annual revenues of more than four billion yuan exceeded 200 and nearly a thousand companies made cross-border operations last year.

Investment in the electronics manufacturing sector rose 1.6 percent year on year. The growth was 14.7 percentage points higher than that of 2015, according to the report.

The industry's rapid development was boosted by internet-based innovations including virtual reality, smart television and drones.

IT is playing a bigger role in consumption, which will boost combined output of related industries to 15 trillion yuan in 2020, according to an industry guideline released recently by the State Council.

China will bolster online information consumption in the next few years to stimulate domestic demand and shore up economic growth.

By the end of 2020, the consumption of online information products and services is expected to grow at least 11 percent per year to reach 6 trillion yuan, according to the guideline.

Online information consumption stood at 3.9 trillion yuan last year, contributing 0.26 percentage points to the country's 6.7 percent year-on-year GDP growth.

The government has said it will create a sound business environment by adopting inclusive and prudent regulation, cutting red tape, and improving the protection of personal information and intellectual property.

 

[TaiShang]

China leads world in internet market
By Cheng Yu and Ma Si | China Daily | Updated: 2017-09-15

China pioneers the world in internet development, as the growth of its netizen population and the amount of internet consumption both top the corresponding rate in other nations, a newly released industry report said.

The compound growth rate of Chinese netizens reached 25 percent in the past 15 years and ranks the first globally while China's internet consumption has grown at a compound rate of 32 percent in the past five years, which is also ahead of most countries in the world.

The report, published by global management consultancy the Boston Consulting Group as well as a group of internet giants such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Baidu Inc and Didi Chuxing, reveals the latest trend of China's internet economy.

"We found that many new applications permeate much quicker in China than the US as Chinese netizens are more willing to accept new applications," said Li Shu, a partner at Boston Consulting.

"For example, Chinese transportation platform Didi Chuxing took three years to get half of China's ride-sharing market penetration while Uber still hasn't achieved the same goal "up till now," Li said.

Another trend the report pointed out: China's internet market is very influential in terms of scale and impact as a considerable number of internet giants, start ups and unicorns－new, non-listed companies with valuations of more than $1 billion－are competing with world magnates in the field.

Data from open database CrunchBase showed that among 221 global unicorns, Chinese firms make up for nearly one third of the total, with a valuation of around $330 billion.

Statistics from China Internet Network Information Center showed that China had a total of 751 million netizens by June 2017, which is about the total population of Europe.

China's "internet market can develop so rapidly based on such a big quantity. It is partly benefited by China's overall economic situation, since China has a large amount of young consumers and internet talents, a well-rounded capital foundation, as well as a solid base on infrastructure," Li said.

In the past few years, the State Council, Chinese cabinet, has pushed forward a series of plans to booster internet infrastructure construction, including broadband, mobile internet, iCloud and new technologies, which guarantees a sound environment for internet development.

According to the report, China's internet economy is highly active but also fluctuates greatly in top destinations of investment such as group purchases, live video streaming and peer-to-peer lending. An increasing number of enterprises has followed the trend, but the survival rate is low.

The Chinese internet market "is moving from application-driven innovation to technology-driven innovation. We believe that in the future, the large amount of users as well as abundant application scenes will help China to promote technological innovation," added Zhao Cheng, general manager of public affairs of Baidu Inc.

 

[cirr]

Smart robot developed in China guarantees water resistance of new Apple phones

2017-09-15 09:39

chinadaily.com.cn Editor: Liang Meichen

Technology developed by a Chinese university has been incorporated into the latest phones released by Apple.

The iPhone 8 and iPhone X, which were unveiled on Wednesday, are "precision‑engineered to resist water and dust," according to the company.

That specification was achieved by a university in Dalian, which says its smart robot system for spraying adhesive is key equipment that guarantees the water-proof ability of the new iPhones.

A team at the Dalian University of Technology, in northeastern Liaoning province, developed the smart robot controlling system based on technology it developed.

Unlike adhesives applied manually, the robots can automatically select the spray point and accurately calculate the coordinates of the precise location through image measurements.

The process greatly enhances the spray efficiency and ensures the waterproofing effect.

The system is utilized in most of the domestic factories operated by Apple supplier, Foxconn.

The total cost of the equipment has exceeded 170 million yuan ($25.9 million), sources at the university said.

The university team are focusing on the intelligent perception, deep learning, independent decision-making and other key technical problems of robot control in order to provide security and technical support for the application of robot in relevant industries.

http://www.ecns.cn/business/2017/09-15/273739.shtml

 

[JSCh]

China's Huawei, ZTE to develop high-speed Internet in Algeria
Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-04 10:27:29|Editor: Mengjie



ALGIERS, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese telecommunications manufacturing giant Huawei on Tuesday signed an agreement with Algerian telecommunications operator Algerie Telecom (AT) to develop very high-speed Internet service, Algeria's state news agency reported.

According to Algeria Press Service, the partnership agreement is aimed at deploying optical cabling terminates at homes and companies.

The project will provide more effective communication between network users, including video conferencing, peer-to-peer, Internet Protocol (IP) telephony and online backup.

AT's CEO Adel Khemane told reporters that this "partnership project is set to deploy a very high-speed broadband network over a period of one year, in a bid to offer this service to more than one million customers."

Meanwhile, another Chinese telecom product manufacturer, ZTE, signed a partnership agreement with the Algerian Federation for Young Entrepreneurs (FNTE), as part of the deployment of an optical cabling network nationwide.

AT aims to strengthen its positioning in the telecommunications sector in Algeria amid competition from some prominent private operators.

China and Algeria, which established a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2014, have expanded cooperation in fields such as infrastructure, engineering construction and telecommunications.

 

[Dungeness]

Total revenues of major IT and internet companies reached 17 trillion yuan (about US$2.6 trillion), 1.55 times that of the 2012, the latest official data showed.

Now that is even bigger than India's entire GDP, yet China has never tried to claim the title of "IT Superpower". It says something about these two countries.

 

[TaiShang]

Now that is even bigger than India's entire GDP, yet China has never tried to claim the title of "IT Superpower". It says something about these two countries.

China is better continue this way, building up capabilities and let the numbers speak for themselves after the ground reality is set.

India is big ambitions and small capabilities. Hence, the gap between ambitions and capabilities is filled with big mouth words.

***

 

[JSCh]

China to pioneer next frontier of innovation, expert says
By Ma Si | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2017-10-18 08:52

Wang Endong, chief scientist at China's largest server maker, Inspur Group, and delegate to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, meets the press before the opening of the Congress in Beijing October 18, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

China will be a world pioneer in making servers to power artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and big data applications as these cutting-edge technologies are widely seen as the next frontier of innovation, a renowned expert in the sector said on Wednesday.

"After years of development, China has leaped from a follower into a leader of innovation in server-related technologies," Wang Endong, chief scientist at China's largest server maker, Inspur Group, told reporters on the sidelines of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

Servers are the "engines" to drive the flow of data in various industries. They run core business systems in finance, telecom, electricity, energy, transmission and other industries that are directly related to people's livelihood.

According to Wang, three of the top five global server makers are from China. The country is also playing an important part in setting worldwide industrial standards.

"We outpaced other countries in server patent applications, which will offer a strong momentum to growth," he added. Wang also called for more efforts to achieve breakthroughs in the research and development of core technologies.

 

[cirr]

China to make new breakthrough in quantum communication: CPC delegate

2017-10-19 10:13 Xinhua Editor: Gu Liping

Photo taken on Nov. 26, 2016 shows a quantum communication ground station in Xinglong, north China's Hebei Province. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

Chinese researchers will soon make a new breakthrough in quantum communication after the world's first 2,000-km quantum communication line between Beijing and Shanghai went into operation in September, a senior university official said.[Special Coverage]

The team led by Pan Jianwei from the Chinese Academy of Sciences has continued deep research to optimize the transmission of the quantum communication line so a jam will not occur when the number of users increases, said Xu Wu, Communist Party chief of the University of Science and Technology of China based in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province.

Due to the attenuation of optical fiber, relay stations are needed to extend the distance of quantum communication. There are more than 30 relay stations, with an average distance of about 80 km between them, on the Beijing-Shanghai line.

The research team is working to extend the distance between two stations to 300 or 500 km to cut the number of relay stations and consequently the overall cost, said Xu, one of the more than 2,200 delegates to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which opened Wednesday in Beijing.

A breakthrough will be made in this regard in the near future, said the Party official, whose university is applying for a national laboratory in the quantum field.

Quantum communication has ultra-high security. It is impossible to wiretap, intercept or crack the information transmitted through this means.

The Beijing-Shanghai quantum communication line is connected to the world's first quantum satellite, which was launched by China in August last year, through a station in Beijing. The satellite is nicknamed Micius after a fifth century B.C. Chinese philosopher and scientist who has been credited as the first person to conduct optical experiments.

As it is a new type of communication, the line's operation might come across problems. The team will try to solve problems through further research to make the line better meet the needs of the country and the users, said Xu.

http://www.ecns.cn/2017/10-19/277628.shtml

 

[cirr]

ZTE launches Pre5G solution

2017-10-20 09:40

Global Times Editor: Li Yan

Major Chinese telecommunication provider ZTE Corp launched on Thursday a solution to accelerate the Pre5G evolution for fifth-generation (5G) networks, the company said in a statement sent to the Global Times.

The total Pre5G solution allows existing 4G subscribers to experience 5G-like services. It will be able to co-exist with 5G for long-term collaborative development, ZTE said.

http://www.ecns.cn/business/2017/10-20/277746.shtml

 

[cirr]

China predicted to account for half of 5G subscribers

Written by Scott Bicheno

1 day ago

Analyst house CCS Insight has been running the numbers on predicted 5G adoption and come to the conclusion that China will be all over it.

They reckon 5G will take off faster than any of the previous generations, which is no great reach since that’s usually the case with the next ‘G’. With things only set to kick off in 2020, CCS forecasts we’ll hit the 1 billion mark by 2023, with more than half of that accounted for by China alone.

China has shown a remarkable ability to ramp very quickly. For years growth in the smartphone industry was driven by around a billion Chinese consumers upgrading from feature phones to smartphones and they clearly love a mobile phone. Furthermore vendors like Huawei and ZTE, alongside mega-operators like China Mobile have been throwing cash at 5G for a while. By contrast CCS reckons Europe will trail the Far East and the US by at least a year.

“We see China playing a far more influential role in 5G than it did in 4G,” said Marina Koytcheva, VP of Forecasting at CCS. “Size, scale and economic growth give China an obvious head start, but we expect network deployments to be much faster than in the early days of 4G. China will dominate 5G thanks to its political ambition to lead technology development, the inexorable rise of local manufacturer Huawei and the breakneck speed at which consumers have upgraded to 4G connections in the recent past.”

The firm has clearly been receiving many of the press releases we have around 5G and warns that many of the utopian use-cases put forward are going to be a long time coming.

“The unrelenting hype that has surrounded 5G for several years has seen a diverse range of applications put forward as the main drivers of adoption,” Kester Mann, Principal Analyst, Operators at CCS. “Some of them will be relevant at different times of the technology’s development, but the never-ending need for speed and people’s apparently limitless demand for video consumption will dominate 5G networks.”

“5G is about creating a network that can scale up and adapt to radically new applications,” said Geoff Blaber, VP Research, Americas at CCS. “For operators, network capacity is the near-term justification; IoT and mission-critical services may not see exponential growth in the next few years but they remain a central part of the vision for 5G. Operators will have to carefully balance the period between investment and generating revenue from new services.”

Here’s the CCS Insights global 5G connections forecast.



http://telecoms.com/485569/china-predicted-to-account-for-half-of-5g-subscribers/

 

[cirr]

China aims to roll out 5G standard and mobile prototypes next June

2017-10-27 16:19

Ecns.cn Editor: Mo Hong'e

Wen Ku, director of the telecom department at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, answers questions at a press conference, Oct. 27, 2017. (Photo/China News Service)

(ECNS) -- The second phase of China's 5G testing program will be concluded by the end of this year with the third round starting in 2018, said Wen Ku, director of the telecom department at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, on Friday.

As one of the first countries in the world to promote 5G testing, China established the IMT-2020 (5G) development group back in 2013 and has made strides in research and development.

By next June, China will introduce the first global 5G standard, and around the same time, aim to introduce 5G prototype products, said Wen at a press conference in Beijing.

It was added that 5G is expected to become a driving force for China's economic growth and transformation with extensive use in each corner of life.

Test results show technical solutions provided by participating companies can meet core requirements. Five companies including Huawei and ZTE have built 15 stations in Huairou District in Beijing for further tests.

China plans to commercialize 5G mobile networks, which provide much faster connectivity and lower energy consumption, as early as 2020.

http://www.ecns.cn/cns-wire/2017/10-27/278705.shtml

 

[JSCh]

China-Europe high-bit-rate network
Source:Global Times Published: 2017/10/29 21:38:39

TransTeleCom and China Telecom, one of China's largest telecommunication operators, announced on Thursday in Moscow that they have completed a joint large project - the first terrestrial high-bit-rate telecommunication route connecting China and Europe.

The 100-gigabit bandwidth route will be used by international clients to move bulk data from Asia to the major exchange point in Frankfurt, Germany.

The telecom operators can now offer an optimum data transfer route to international clients that put equal value on speed and reliability. TransTeleCom handles more than 20 percent of the data traffic from China to Europe.

 

[JSCh]

China’s Citic buys Dutch telecom operator with eye on New Silk Road
by GBTIMES Oct 26, 2017 14:47

Citic Telecom said it now has 140 Points of Presence across countries along the Digital Silk Road between Asia and Europe. Screenshot / https://www.citictel-cpc.com/

China’s Citic Telecom CPC has completed its acquisition of Dutch telecom operator Linx Telecommunication BV, as part of a plan to provide telecommunications solutions in countries covered by the Belt and Road initiative.

Citic Telecom said on Wednesday that, following the acquisition, it has become one of the first Asian-managed service providers to own more than 140 Points of Presence (POPs) across countries along the Digital Silk Road between Asia and Europe.

POPs are locations where two or more different networks or communication devices connect to each other.

“Our mission to connect the world to the Digital Silk Road is closer to fulfilment, as we support customers to invest and operate in central Europe, eastern Europe and Russia,” Stephen Ho, CEO of CITIC Telecom, said.

“Accelerating internationalisation and digitalisation, the markets along the “One Belt, One Road” route offer huge development potential. Information interconnectivity is the basis and a development priority of the initiative,” he concluded.

The Belt and Road initiative is a China-proposed plan that aspires to boost trade and infrastructure investment among more than 60 countries along the ancient Silk Road trade routes from Asia to Europe and Africa.

Citic Telecom is owned by Citic, a major Chinese state-owned investment company.

The Amsterdam-based telecom company will change its name to CITIC Telecom CPC Europe, it said.



China’s Citic buys Dutch telecom operator with eye on New Silk Road